Car accident help

Mercdriver

Pinkdarts180 wrote: »

I had a car accident almost 3 years ago, the solicitors which my insurance company put me on to, haven't been great.
I have been left with tinnitus and I had an offer last week which is a small amount.
I said I'm not accepting the offer.
They've now come back saying the 3rd party won't budge on the offer and they haven't seen my medical records. If I give them access to it, the solicitors have said the offer could Go down.
I've googled other cases and they've topped £20k.

Am I still in my rights to not take the offer.
Or can I change to another solicitors?

That is a risk. When I was knocked off my bicycle years ago, my initial consultation for litigation purposes suggested I might get 5 figures, but it needed further referral to a orthopaedic specialist. I found the orthopaedic specialist quite dismissive of the pain I was still going through - I had frozen shoulder frequently (still get it sometimes) following a complicated fracture to collarbone. 7 months of not being able to use my left side had left me with some issues, but the orthopaedic surgeon was unhelpful.

This led to me ending up with a much more inferior award. It went down quite markedly. We didn't need to go down this route, the law firm felt it would lead to a higher payout. So we chanced our arm and my award went down.

Litigation is gambling with advisors you often have to pay for. You have to decide whether what they are offering is worth the risk of it going down. If there is litigation insurance involved with the no win no fee, then they may pull funding if you don't follow advice.

m0bov

Ectophile wrote: »

Of course not. The airbag wouldn't have exploded if the other driver hadn't run into the OP.

But would the op have a life long hearing complaint had the airbag not gone off?

shaun_from_Africa

m0bov wrote: »

But would the op have a life long hearing complaint had the airbag not gone off?

Possibly not but then again, if the airbag had not gone off, the OP might have suffered far worse life changing injuries.

IMO, the only way that the manufacturer could possibly be held liable is if the airbag system could be proven to be defective and the noise it made when deploying exceeded the limit stated in the approved specifications. (if there is such a thing stated).

Mercdriver

m0bov wrote: »

But would the op have a life long hearing complaint had the airbag not gone off?

So you are suggesting that Saint-Gobain Sekurit or Pilikington would be liable for injuries caused by broken glass?

facade

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

IMO, the only way that the manufacturer could possibly be held liable is if the airbag system could be proven to be defective and the noise it made when deploying exceeded the limit stated in the approved specifications. (if there is such a thing stated).

Takata made a lot of defective squibs from 2002-2015. These go off rather more violently than designed, (supposedly filling the car with a hailstorm of shrapnel), which is why most of them have been/are being recalled and changed.



So quite possible that it could have exceeded any noise limit.